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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociologyat the University of Massachusetts Boston. My graduate training was at the University of Maryland, where I received a PhD in sociology with a focus on demography and social psychology. Following graduate school I was fortunate to have a postdoc at the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University.

I am interested in how young women and men navigate
uncertainty and risk as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. I use mixed-methods and draw from theoretical perspectives from sociology, demography, social psychology, and public health to describe these transitions.My research in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania focuses on the complex, yet
critical role of trust and commitment in condom use and fidelity during the ongoing AIDS epidemic. My research
in southwest Ethiopia focuses on the transition to marriage in an environment
where the relationships between marriage, kin, and legal institutions are
changing. I am currently revising a proposal with Ulla Larsen and Marida Hollos to investigate how young women and men in Moshi, Tanzania cope
with infertility in a context where becoming a parent is critical to the
transition to adulthood.

I have taught courses including Sexuality, Gender, and Society, Introduction to Sociology, Social Psychology, Sociology of Health, Illness and Health Care, the Sociology of AIDS, and Population and Society as well as conducted workshops on data analysis in Rwanda, South Africa, and Ethiopia.